Global Warming – real or imagined?
I’ve been leaning heavily on looking at concepts such as evolution vs intelligent design, paranormal topics and other so called ‘fringe’ areas. The central point in all of them is to question the facts, do not make assumptions and keep an open mind. On that note I wanted to turn to look at something more scientific. The concept of global warming is one of the hot beds of debate in today’s world. Some think it’s the most urgent thing we can deal with, others think it’s a pipe dream. So my question is, what is all the fuss about?
What is global warming anyway?
Not to sound like a smart ass, but in a nut shell, it has to do with the globe getting warmer. But, in more detail, it has to do with the earth’s warming due to human intervention. How could we possibly warm the earth? We pump out a good deal of chemicals and greenhouse gases that result in an atmosphere with more carbon dioxide in it than should be. As a result, the Earth will hold in too much heat, causing world wide temperatures to go up, hence global warming. Ok, simple enough. But is it really real?
This is a tough question and where the likes of Al Gore wage war on the premise that it’s absolutely real. According to Al Gore, and others, the earth is going to heat up and heat up fast. So much so the Governor of California is working on legislation such that California will have to begin to prepare for rising oceans and how it will effect coastal areas. In fact, just about everyone you talk to these days say it’s real, it’s happening, it’s a fact, global warming is going to kill us all.
Well, i’m not the type to just believe something because everyone else is, and you shouldn’t be either. So, when browsing my favorite news sites I stumbled upon the heading of “The world has never seen such freezing heat“. Odd I thought, clicking it revealed a story wherein one of the institutes responsible for the data proving global warming to be real stated that October of 2008 was the hottest on record. But, this was a rather odd statement since several areas throughout the world were reporting record cold temperatures and snow storms. Upon further review, the data was completely wrong. The temperatures for the previous month were carried over to October. October was judged based on September’s temperatures, a normally hotter month.
Suffice to say, the anti-global warming enthusiasts shouted this fact with renewed vigor. And yes, there are anti-global warming advocates. They claim that 2007 was not in fact the hottest year on record but rather it was in the 1930’s. They claim that most of the global warming spiel is being generated by a few leading scientists and their data is mostly flawed.
Ok, so what now? There are those that say it’s real and those that say that the data being used to judge is flawed. And yes, the data was 100% wrong for October. Where does that leave us? The average joe who knows to know if he should prepare for beach front property in DC suburbs.
Relax – the end is not near
Ok, so the reason I wanted to post about this was not to take a side in the global warming debate. I do not know if it’s really happening. This summer was mild, this winter so far is colder, from my perspective it’s not getting warming year over year. Simple.
What I do find interesting is how most people take one side or the other. Well, if the data is flawed, how can they know what side to take? The central idea is somewhat sound, it makes sense that if we, human civilization, put out greenhouse gases then a greenhouse effect is likely. But, are we really putting out so much that it could effect the global atmosphere? Some say no. Some say yes. Mostly the argue with one another.
My point here, don’t get caught up taking sides over something that some would say is still not proven to be true. If you think there is enough evidence, fair enough, but don’t stop questioning that evidence. For decades doctors would tell us that eating eggs gave people high cholesterol, until the evidence changed. Now they say global warming is as real as the sun. Is it? The neat thing about science is it’s ok when you change your mind. New evidence, new findings, new techniques to challenge the status quo, all good things for science.
Article about global warming data being wrong: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/11/16/do1610.xml
Article refuting the above article: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/11/mountains-and-molehills/
Read about the Govenor of California’s orders about rising sea’s here: http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/15/schwarzenegger-orders-california-to-prepare-for-sea-level-rise/
